#gg truth or dare subplot

[millia-rage-subhuman-self]

t-truth or dare...-@ratlike-intern

Hm? Oh, I pick truth

That's how this works, right?

[jade4813]

Wonder Woman Spoilers/Thoughts

I enjoyed Wonder Woman. But the more I think about it, the more I have some issues with the story. I really wish we could have a moratorium on "there is something about this hero that the hero dare not know because of X but everyone else around them does." Or "there is this secret about the hero that we can't tell them for their own good." I remember the hints of that in the first Amazing Spider-Man trailer and I was like "sweet Jesus, no." (I was glad when I watched that movie that that subplot seemed to have not made it past the cutting room floor, but it returned with a vengeance in the sequel.) When I saw hints of that in the Wonder Woman trailer, I was like, "Whyyyyy? She is WONDER WOMAN! Whatever it is, she can take it! I guarantee it!" The thing is, when they do that sort of thing, I can very rarely think of a time when they were RIGHT to keep that secret. When keeping it actually was for the best. For example, in this movie, her mom says (like four times) "the more she knows, the quicker he will find her." Now, when I was watching, I was thinking of Voldemort, that he somehow knew when people said his name so IF Ares worked like that, then sure, when Diana was a wee sprout of a thing, maaaaaybe gently sort of ease her into this reality so he doesn't find her before she is ready. But by the time she left, she was kicking ass and taking names, and maybe Hippolyta didn't WANT that future for her daughter (which I will buy as why she didn't seem to want her daughter to EVER know how to fight, even though had Ares found them first and she didn't, that would have been Game Over for Diana before she could so much as blink. But she was a mom who truly loved her daughter, so I could see that, while misguided, she probably thought "if I don't teach her, it will never happen" - because the odds of Ares just finding them would be pretty low and Diana wouldn't ever leave). But not knowing the truth really did put her daughter at a disadvantage in the fight, and it was a disadvantage that she didn't need to be in. So instead of being like "there is so much you don't know" when Diana left, she should have been like "ummmm...right. Quick sec. Since you're doing this and I can't stop you...there really is something you should know. You'll have questions I don't have time to answer. Sorry. But...here it is because you'll need to know." The reason it bothers me is that after saying (several times), "The more she knows, the quicker he'll find her" ... her knowledge of lack thereof did squat to prevent him from finding her. She was in man's world for like FIVE MINUTES and he found her. Well, to be more accurate...she found him. I mean, she didn't know who he was, but she walked right into the room where he was in a way guaranteed to draw his attention (though that wasn't her intent). And maybe it took until the bar scene for him to be 100% sure she was who he probably suspected from the start, but he sure as hell knew in that moment if he didn't before. So Diana, who was still in the dark about herself? Was in no way protected by not knowing the truth at that point. Hero stories keep doing this thing where "the hero cannot know the truth about themselves because of X!" And that's fine, I suppose, if the moment they find out the truth, X comes to pass, or if not knowing the truth in some way DOES keep them safe somehow. But knowing...not knowing...had no bearing on Diana's story. It didn't make Ares find her quicker. Sure, maybe she would have left to find him sooner if she'd known, but at the point she was about to leave and her mom knew it, there was certainly no reason at that moment for her to not know. Hell, she could have handed a daughter a letter she wrote that she hoped never to give her but, similar to the sword, "I wrote this years ago so that when the time came to give this to you because you needed to know this, you would." Or, if you want it to be a surprise to Diana so it is one for the audience, have everyone totally believe the story Diana was told (when certainly at least two Amazons knew the truth, if not all of them except for Diana). But have Ares reveal to Diana that Zeus was more sly than they expected and the godkiller wasn't what they were all - including Hippolyta - led to believe. I dunno. That part of the story really frustrated me. Because you have this hero who the whole time is kept in the dark about herself (and I didn't get the impression for certain that everyone else was in the dark with her, so she was possibly if not likely the only one not in the know). That withheld information did ZIP to actually keep Ares from finding her - which was the reason she wasn't told. And not knowing meant she was caught off-guard and confused in a final battle when she really didn't have to be. And she's WONDER WOMAN. She could take it! Stop keeping heroes in the dark for "mysterious" (sometimes stupid) justifications, particularly if those justifications then do not even remotely play out! (Another thought on the subject of Ares, though less irksome...Ares, sit your ass down. Either you're to blame for this, in which case, you aren't dead at the end since I know for a fact there were some pretty significant wars after WWI. Or humanity has this in our nature, in which case, we got this. We don't need you. You go find a beach somewhere and wait, because you're immortal and you're pretty sure us exterminating ourselves is inevitable, and there's so reason to stick your neck out when we got this handled all on our own. Stop being a drama queen, because all you're asking for is a Wonder Woman beat down you could have avoided if you'd just taken a nap or something.) So the more I think about it, I DO have some issues with the story. They are not issues exclusive to the Wonder Woman movie; more like a trend I've noticed and been annoyed by increasingly since Amazing Spider-Man hinted in the trailer "the spider biting you was no accident! You were chosen for this! But you cannot know!" It's a freaking spider biting a kid in a lab. Not everything has to be a conspiracy, not every hero has to have this shadowy destiny that they alone cannot know. SOMETIMES SPIDERS JUST BITE RANDOM PEOPLE IN LABS AND THOSE PEOPLE THEN HAVE TO FIGURE OUT WHO THEY WANT TO BE. However. That tangent aside. I ALSO keep coming back to just how likable GG and CP were, individually and together. (And I'm just now realizing the stars of Wonder Woman have the same initials as the stars of Flash. No way THAT will cause confusion in future on my dash.) I keep thinking how delightful Diana was at times, as she experienced the world for the first time. (Like her laugh when she first saw snow.) and utterly believable she was as Diana/Wonder Woman. And Steve was ABSOLUTELY what he should have been. He helped Diana. He guided her through an insane world (to her). And, sure, at first he tried to be chivalrous and all "get behind me!" But when he realized that she didn't need his protection, he was like... "ah...she's got this." And even when he told her to hold back, it was "you can't just go into the room and kill someone!" Not holding her back because "I don't want you to be in the path of danger!" And it was refreshing that Wonder Woman was portrayed as a warrior and a hero first and foremost and not as "well, here's this super hot woman in tight spandex who, sure, can fight. But the important thing is...did you notice she's a super hot woman in spandex?" I loved the first battle because it was filmed like any other action scene would be, if all the characters were men. There were action shots that were slowed down, but the focus in doing so was always "look at this impressive move of a person leaning down from a horse to grab a shield" or "focus on these three arrows that are shot at the same time and all three hit their targets because these warriors are BAD ASS." Not "these are kinda cool moves that show off the ladies' asses and make their boobs jiggle and you should totally get a chance to appreciate those attributes, so we'll slow it down so you can." I also loved that the Amazons are all supposed to be immortal and beautiful and yet they didn't just cast a bunch of 25 year olds and put them in sexy togas because..."they're supposed to be beautiful, physically perfect women! Of course they'd all be 25 with flawless skin! Maybe because Hippolyta is a mom and the queen, we'll let her be...32. But that's as far as we go." (And, you know, Robin Wright was stunning as Buttercup in Princess Bride and she is no less gorgeous - and considerably more kick ass - as Antiope.) Also, something that I have missed in the DCEU so far, at least... I loved that Diana was actually allowed to ENJOY and be HAPPY in herself, in her powers, in who she is. I know people complain that DCEU doesn't have enough jokes, but that isn't it, really. It's more - to me - that they are given the heavy weight of the responsibility they carry but none of the joy that comes with it. I have felt Superman has been given his burdens but not his joy (and I'm talking for who he is and what he can do HIMSELF, not in his relationship with Lois). Diana has a pretty significant, pretty heavy weight to carry. The Amazons exist to protect the world and take down Ares. But I never felt that she carried this as her burden so much as...her honored duty, I guess? Like there is this weight to carry, but rather than having her struggle with whether to or how to carry such a burden, she embraced her duty, her role, her innate differences with open arms. She welcomed it and found pride and even joy in it. So...I enjoyed ALL of that. But, yeah, when I think about the story itself...there are some issues I have with it, a few things I wish they'd done differently. I am looking forward to the sequel, but I also hope these Unnecessary Secrets are out of the way.

[millia-rage-subhuman-self]

Huh?

Err... Are you asking me if I ever crushed a garlic clove?

You can just ask me anything and I'll answer, I'm bound by the rules of the game.

t-truth or dare...-@ratlike-intern

Hm? Oh, I pick truth

That's how this works, right?

[millia-rage-subhuman-self]

It's an older word from what I remember - Venom described it to me one day after he acquired an older text by chance. It has something to do with how you can control the heat in the space, in older English?

But basically, we cook food in there to make it safe to eat or cause a reaction to make wonderful food. For instance, Venom puts batter in there to make delicious cake. Or we can cook lasagna in there so the cheese melts a certain way. Plus some food tastes better warm! Putting ice cream in there is a bad idea. He... Can describe it better than I can, honestly.

Wait how are ice cream cakes made again. One of my interns mentioned it.

A-Anyway, as for avoiding people, could you clarify? Like.... if I've ever had to make sure that I had to avoid someone to be happy? Is that the truth question for me?

t-truth or dare...-@ratlike-intern

Hm? Oh, I pick truth

That's how this works, right?

[millia-rage-subhuman-self]

Oh, I meant that you can pick anything to ask me. If you want to know if I have done something or anything I can respond. Don't feel bad, I'll answer anything.

So you can ask me if I like books, if I have anything embarrassing, etc etc

t-truth or dare...-@ratlike-intern

Hm? Oh, I pick truth

That's how this works, right?